Gigabyte Invents Booktop Form Factor

You’d have thought with netbooks, nettops, and all-in-one nettops like the Asus Eeetop we’d have exhausted the list of possible generic Atom-based mini PC and notebook form factors. Gigabyte has other ideas, though, as we now have the Booktop to add to the list.

Coming so far in the form of the M1022 model, in essence the booktop consists of a netbook with dock but one into which the netbook sits on its side. The netbook can then be charged through and have its connectivity passed on to ports on the back of the dock (all done through a slim proprietary connector), meaning you can have a monitor, keboard, mouse, and Ethernet network all neatly connected to the dock for when you want to work properly at home then you can just lift your netbook out when you need to work on the move and there are no messy cables to unplug. Gigabyte han’t actually extended the netbooks connectivity by adding, say, a PS2 port, parellel port, or HDMI socket but we don’t see this as particularly surprising or something to worry too much about considering the sort of tasks such a device would be used for.

The netbook itself is a 10.1inch model that seemed like a nice design with a frameless glossy screen and it looked suitably elegant in its stand. A couple of obvious issues include the touchpad, that has buttons either side of it rather than below, and the keyboard was american style so there could yet be layout issues in the UK version. Oddly, considering its apparent emphasis on working from home, the M1022 also features built in 3.5G networking, which some will see as a big bonus. No word on pricing or availability yet but expect it to be premium for a netbook and soon.